Que Sera, Sera
by JoeBabyFyrestorm
Summary: What happens when a Joe is forced to make the hardest decision of his life, and the consequences that it has.
1. Looking forward to some time off

*I own none of this except the situations and Vixen, Sandy, and Toby. Everybody and everything else belongs to their respective owners- Hasbro, Devils Due- whoever.  
  
"De Havilland!" Vixen looks up at the yell through her office door, putting the pen she is writing with down as she does.  
  
"Sir?"  
  
"Get your things packed. You're going with me," Lifeline states as he sticks his head through the partially opened door.  
  
"Um, mind if I ask where and why, sir?"  
  
"Atlantic City is the where. And the why is because of a combat medic's convention. You're the most junior member here, and we can get along without you for a few days."  
  
"I may be the most junior member here, but I'm also one of the most capable when it comes to doing my job, Sir. I don't care what anyone else says."  
  
"You're right, but I still want you to go with me to that meeting," he says, amiably, letting his personality show through for a second.  
  
"When do you want to leave?" Vixen asked.  
  
"As soon as you can get your duffle packed."  
  
"Consider it done. All I have to do is retrieve it from my quarters." She jumps up and grabs her jacket from the back of the chair, sliding it on.  
  
"Mind if I walk with you?" asks Lifeline, in a friendly manner.  
  
"If you want to."  
  
They walk to her quarters in the female barracks and retrieve her duffle, Lifeline taking it from her and swinging it over his shoulder.  
  
"You know, Captain, that you didn't have to do that. I am quite capable of carrying my own duffle."  
  
"Lieutenant De Havilland, I hate to do it, but just this once I'm going to pull rank on you and tell you to can it. This thing is bigger than you are. And it probably weighs more, too," he tells her, laughing.  
  
"Are you making wisecracks about my size, Sir?" Vixen asks with sparks flashing in her eyes, teasing him back.  
  
"No, little Vixen. I was just stating a simple fact."  
  
They get to the airport with plenty of time to catch their flight, and for the most part, it is silent between them.  
  
They got to the hotel with no problems, until they checked in. Lifeline had reserved a single room with double beds for the two of them, whereas Vixen would have preferred separate rooms.  
  
But, since he outranked her, she kept her mouth shut. At least until it was just the two of them in the room.  
  
"Captain Steen, I think that you need to be told before anything else happens between us. I'm not quite comfortable sleeping in the same room as a man. Hell, I'm not certain I can handle being awake and aware in the same room with a man by myself for more than a few minutes."  
  
"You know I don't bite, Lieutenant. I won't hurt you," he tells her compassionately.  
  
"In my head, I know that. But deep down inside me, there's a scared little girl who doesn't. There's a very significant reason why."  
  
He reaches over to put his hand on her shoulder and she stiffens.  
  
"See what I mean?" Vixen asks, shaking her head in shame.  
  
"I understand. It's a hands off policy from here on out, or until you say otherwise. I can see that you have some personal demons that you need to work through. I promise that I'll leave you alone unless you want me to touch you for some reason."  
  
This went on all night. Vixen lay in the bed, wide-awake, occasionally sneaking a glance or two over at him, sleeping, in the other bed. Most of the night she spent sitting on the floor of the bathroom, reading, with the door shut to keep from waking Lifeline up. 


	2. Trapped like Mice

The next morning, she gave no indication that she had spent the night awake. Except for a slight headache, she told him she was fine. The same thing happened for the next couple of days.  
  
They left together early for the local med center where the convention was being held giving themselves time to stop and eat breakfast. Lifeline was amazed that all she would have for breakfast was a cup of hot tea. No solid food, no coffee.  
  
As he had promised her earlier, he kept his hands off of her, although you could see in his eyes that he wanted to drag her into his arms and never let her go. He was worried about her. He had seen the dark circles under her eyes and the way she would start to doze off every few minutes. He knew that she hadn't been sleeping, and he resolves that if he had to drug her drink tonight, she would sleep.  
  
Halfway through the second lecture of the third day, Vixen was bent over, taking notes, when suddenly it got very quiet. She looks up at Lifeline, who is dozing in his seat. She nudges him with her foot, as she looks around.  
  
There are armed men stationed all around the room. Both Joes pale as they realize what is happening. They look at each other in horror as the terrorists begin to separate the convention members according to sex.  
  
Vixen grabs his hand as one of the terrorists grabs her shoulder and shoves her to the other side of the room. He squeezes it in camaraderie during the split second that they have contact with each other.  
  
The terrorists give each person a small blanket and pillow, indicating that they were to find themselves a spot and make a pallet for themselves. Vixen lucks out and manages to get a spot quite close to Lifeline. She leans over to him. "So much for us being the medics for the premier antiterrorist unit in the country, huh?" He looks over at her and smiles, knowing that the joke is her way of coping with the situation.  
  
When one of the girls complains that she has to go to the bathroom, the terrorist leader, Alfonso, decides to make it a mandatory order for all the females.  
  
Vixen is one of the last to use the facilities, and as she is coming out of the stall, something hits her from behind, hard. She stumbles, but doesn't go down. Whatever it was that hit her the first time does it again. She feels a sharp prick on her shoulder, and curses.  
  
"Damn it! You hit the freaking vein! Son of a bitch," she growls as her head begins to throb and the darkness covers her in its comforting arms. She doesn't feel the men undressing her and carrying her naked body into the other room.  
  
Lifeline steels himself for the worst as they begin to carry in the bodies of the women. He draws in his breath in anger as he sees a thin trail of blood on Vixen's arm. So they'd been drugged and not killed. That was good. Then again, maybe not. Since Vixen was the only one with a blood trail, she may have been the only one drugged or possibly poisoned.  
  
"Listen up! We would be honored if you men would decide for yourselves which one of you will take which one of these women to bed. If you don't decide for yourselves, and my men are forced to do it, you will not like the consequences."  
  
Lifeline wastes no time in making his decision known. "I want the scarred one. She'll warm my bed tonight. Anybody else got something to say about it?" No one argued with him or said a word. It was obvious that he would have defended her honor to the death if he had to.  
  
He walked up to her and scooped her unconscious body into his arms and carried it back to his cot. He laid her down and covered her up, curling up next to her. 


	3. The Hardest Decision

After a little while, Alfonso notices that Lifeline isn't doing what he was supposed to be doing. He orders the pair taken into another room, where a number of his men were gathered.  
  
"If you don't screw the girl yourself, I'll get one of my men to do it. Any way you want to do it is fine with me. Or are you not man enough to do it? Is that the problem? You can't get it up to do anything?" He sneers.  
  
Lifeline calmly looks the man squarely in the eyes. "Even I'm man enough to have a problem having sex with a woman who cannot appreciate it. Only a boy would force another man to have sex with an unconscious woman. What kind of drug did you use on her? And did you do all the women that way?"  
  
"No, she was the only one that put up enough of a fight to be drugged. The rest of them went down with the first hit from behind. It's nothing more than Premarigran. She'll be awake in a little while. Show these men how much of a man you are, skinny little medic. You're nothing but a bunch of wimps as far as we're concerned. You won't get out in the front lines and battle like a true man should. Leave the battlefield tending to the women. Bunch of cowards is all you are."  
  
Lifeline closes his eyes and shuts out everything for a moment, centering himself, debating about what he should do. "There's no way around it. I'm going to have to break my promise to her. I hate to see her get hurt, but if it's not me that does it, it'll be one of these animals, and I don't want to take a chance on what diseases they might have, and I don't want her hurt any more than she already has been. She's going to hate me for this, but there's no way I can get around it. I'd rather have her hate me for this than I would for anything else. God, please forgive me for what I am about to do."  
  
"All right," he sighs, opening his ice blue eyes and looking at the terrorists, "I'll do it." He slowly undresses and lies down beside Vixen. He reaches out and pulls her into his arms, shaking her lightly. Her small, athletic, feminine figure fits perfectly into his larger, more muscular, masculine frame, as if she were made especially for him.  
  
"Vixen," he calls softly, shaking her and trying to get her to wake up. "Vixen, wake up, baby."  
  
The drug is starting to wear off on her, so when he calls her name she begins to wake up. She moans.  
  
"Vixen, I'm so sorry, little one. I don't want to have to do this, but..." He trails off as he feels the barrel of a pistol against the back of his head. "It looks like I'm going to have to hurt you, honey. I'm sorry."  
  
Vixen is awake and aware enough to know that they are both naked and what is about to happen between them, and she takes in details to help herself cope in the aftermath. As she feels Lifeline's hand between her thighs, softly stroking her, she squeezes her eyes shut, having a flashback to when she was raped as a young child. She knew what was going on. It was going to happen again.  
  
"I'm going to have to sheathe myself inside your body, honey. I know that you don't want me to do it, but we're both dead if I don't. Help me, little one. I don't want to hurt you. You've been hurt too much already. Trust me, baby. Help me make this as good for you as I can. I promise I'll make it as pleasurable as I can." She begins to moan and plead with him not to do what he was about to.  
  
He blocks out everything in the background, concentrating only on Vixen. Concentrating on bringing as much pleasure to her as he could, knowing that she would understand why. If not now, then someday.  
  
As his body rises over hers and he positions himself to plant his significant length inside of her, he sees tears beginning to fall from her eyes, and he knew then and there that she had been raped before, somewhere in her past. She continues to moan and plead with him not to do what he was doing.  
  
She whimpers in shock and need. At least he had the decency to make sure that she was wet before he took her, unlike the man who was to become her stepfather all those years ago.  
  
"Forgive me, little fox," he whispers, heartbroken that he was causing her so much pain.  
  
"Relax, little one. It'll be easier for both of us," he grunts softly in command, gritting his teeth against the pleasure that he felt. The friction was almost more than he could take. She was so hot, so tight. As perfect as he had always known she'd be since the first day he had seen her when she joined the unit.  
  
He bites back a groan, slowly moving his hips, beginning to withdraw and thrust forward again and again, hoping that when he comes, that they will allow him to pull out and spill his semen on the floor or the bed. He really didn't want to force her to deal with the consequences if she became pregnant from this forced rape.  
  
He wanted children someday, with her, but not right now. He wanted her to know that she didn't have to worry about bringing children into the type of life that she had lived, growing up. He wanted her to know that she was loved, and he wanted his children to be conceived in love, not forced on her. He wanted to make sure that she knew that he would be there to take care of her and his children, if they had any.  
  
His hips move faster and harder between her thighs, driving his substantial length deeper in her, as he nears his climax and he begins to tremble, getting set to pull out, but Alfonso puts his boot on his back and forces him to stay inside her, holding him inside Vixen as he spews his hot, moist seed, spurting a huge load into her waiting womb. Lifeline collapses on Vixen's prone body and rolls to the side, taking Vixen with him, pulling his body from hers, not wanting to crush her with his superior size and weight or to make her endure the feeling of his body inside of hers any more than necessary.  
  
He noticed that her skin was ice cold and clammy and her eyes appeared to be looking off into the distance. He pulled her head closer into his shoulder, whispering to her, comforting her. 


	4. Consequences

"God, my little fox, I am so sorry. I didn't want to do this, but if I hadn't done it to you, one of these animals would have and who knows what kind of damage that they might have done? Forgive me, please, Tessa. I am so sorry. I can never make it up to you. I didn't want to break my promise, but it was the only way to keep you safe." He holds her to him tightly, softly talking to her, whispering nonsense, and attempting to soothe her. While he is doing this, he is automatically scanning her body for any damage that he might have done.  
  
He picks his shirt up off of the floor and tenderly wipes the inner side of her thighs, where he can see trails of her blood and his seed. He also sees the bruises that his fingers had left when he had viciously tightened his grip to hold her open to his tasting. He silently called himself all the nasty names that he could. (Author's note: Innocence does not always equal ignorance.)  
  
He had known that she was no virgin, but she had not had sex since she was raped as a young child and he had also known that he was too big for her, but there was nothing he could do about it. He silently cursed the terrorists.  
  
The pair was forced to copulate in front of the terrorists several more times during the night and in the following days. When they were finally released back into the group, Lifeline makes sure that she is within arms reach of him at all times.  
  
She is like an automaton, making him nervous. She'd gone catatonic, and he was nervous that she would ask for a transfer as soon as they got back to the base. He hand feeds her, knowing that her brain is in shock and is not processing anything at the moment.  
  
Her brain had literally frozen. She would follow commands, but you had to be specific. He winds up treating her like a small child, the mentality that she has retreated into. He knew that she had been raped at an early age when she regressed back into herself.  
  
When they were finally freed to return to the group, they discovered that the children from the surrounding wards were being held in the same room. At night, he'd hold her close to him on his cot and softly sing lullabies and tell stories to her and the children surrounding them. During the day, he told them more stories and kept them entertained, keeping their minds off of the situation they were in.  
  
Day and night, the negotiations were never-ending. When a deal was finally hammered out, most of the hostages were released, but the two Joe medics were not in that group.  
  
When the first shots rang out, and the bullets began to ricochet, Vixen surprised Lifeline by automatically shifting into medic and defense mode. He noticed that it seemed almost like it was a split personality. One moment, she was in full-blown catatonia, the next, she was like this, all business.  
  
Bullets were flying all around them, but neither one of them said a word as they went about their business of tending to the wounded, no matter which side they were on. Vixen never said a word, but somehow, her young assistants had known what she was going to ask for before she did it, and handed it to her.  
  
He watched her with hooded eyes, eyes that hid the pride he felt that he worked with her, even though she was the newest medic to join the Joe unit. There was also another feeling, coming close on the heels of the pride he felt. He didn't want to dwell on what that feeling might have been, although he was afraid that he had already solidified it in his heart.  
  
He was afraid that he had fallen in love with her. She, the untouchable ice goddess, was the woman he had fallen in love with. He understood now why she was the "untouchable ice goddess", as the majority of the guys on the base referred to her out of earshot.  
  
When the last of the terrorists was killed or wounded, the firefight played out, and the police had taken their statements and everything, Lifeline made arrangements to return to the base. Since Vixen was in no condition to do anything, as she'd gone back into shock as soon as the bullets quit flying, he kept her quite close to his side the whole time. 


	5. Quick Stop

When they got back to the base, Hawk immediately called them into his office to find out what had happened. First, though, before he did anything else, Lifeline took Vixen to her quarters and told Stunner to keep a close eye on her.  
  
When he got to Hawk's office, he also discovered Psyche-Out in the same room. They discussed how to help Vixen overcome the shock she was in, and Lifeline came up with an idea.  
  
"Sir, I would like permission to get her off the base. Somewhere where she can face her demons without doing damage to anything here."  
  
"Do you have a destination in mind?"  
  
"I'd like to take her to my hometown with me. I need to keep her close to me, I know Seattle like the back of my hand, and I can keep her safe there. You know she has a long list of enemies," he told Hawk.  
  
"I think that would be an excellent idea, Lifeline," Psyche-Out stated. "Basically, give her mind a clean slate to build on. It could be the catalyst she needs," he mused.  
  
Hawk scrubs his face with his hands. "You're right. That way, we can keep an eye on both of you, and she can begin to heal. Take however long you need to. I'll call you back if anything happens that we can't handle."  
  
Lifeline stands up. "Thank you, Sir."  
  
"Dismissed. And Lifeline, don't feel too guilty about it. If it weren't for you stepping in, she would have been a lot worse off than she is now. Thank you."  
  
Lifeline nods and walks out of the office, going to his quarters and packing his duffle for the trip he was about to take. While he's doing that, he calls Vixen and Stunner's quarters.  
  
"Stunner, I need you to pack Vixen's duffle for a vacation. I don't know how long it'll be, but she'll need some of her cold weather clothing, and some warm weather clothing. Better pack more sweatshirts and jeans, because our destination can be cool even in spring. I'm taking her off base for a while to see if I can't bring her out of that self induced catatonia that she's in."  
  
"No problem, Lifeline. I just have to shift a few things around, and she'll be ready to go."  
  
"Thanks, Stunner. I know it's short notice, but I need to do this as soon as I can."  
  
"Like I said, Lifeline, no problem. She'll be ready to go in about fifteen minutes. Do you want me to walk with her over there to the infirmary?"  
  
"That would be great, Angel."  
  
"Okay, We'll be there in a little while."  
  
"Thanks."  
  
Stunner gets Vixen's cold weather gear ready and packs it in her duffle. "Come on Vixen, we've got an appointment." She takes her by the arm and leads her out the door and over to the infirmary.  
  
When they get to the infirmary, they meet Torpedo, Ace, Dusty and Zap right outside the door. Automatically, Vixen shrinks back away from them towards Stunner. Stunner manages to get Vixen inside before any trouble started.  
  
It doesn't take Lifeline long to make the arrangements that he had to in order to ensure that everything would be taken care of while they were gone. Then he grabs his duffle and Vixen's and carried them out to the jeep waiting to take them to the airport. 


	6. Sibling Solidarity

The flight was smooth and uneventful. When they deplaned onto the concourse in Seattle, Edwin kept his hand on the small of Kit's back, guiding her through the crowd to their waiting ride, his younger sister. She grins as she spots him in the crowd, carrying both duffle bags and guiding Kit.  
  
"So, you finally did it, huh?"  
  
"Did what?"  
  
"You finally fell. I can't believe that you finally fell, Edwin." She laughs, teasing him about his relationship with Kit.  
  
"Sandy, there's more to the story than you'll ever find out from me or Kit. You wouldn't be laughing if you knew the entire story," he advises her. "You're a crisis counselor, right? Maybe I can put you to use while we're here. I'll tell you about it later, when we get to the house."  
  
They pile into Sandy's car, and there's animated conversation between the siblings about Sandy's driving, but Kit shows no emotion whatsoever over anything. She just stares out the window. Sandy watches her in the rearview mirror. Not even a couple of near misses could make her flinch.  
  
"She's been hurt bad, bro. She's in severe shock and if my guess is right, because of the way you're acting, you were the one that hurt her. Am I right?" Sandy asks quietly.  
  
Edwin turns to look out of the window, not willing to see the censure in his sister's eyes as he tells her what had happened. "I was forced to rape her multiple times a week ago. You heard about that medical center that was taken hostage while they were hosting a convention for combat medics? We were right in the center of it. We got back to the base a couple of hours before we caught our flight and left, and as soon as I could swing it, I got her as safe as I could. I brought her here with me. God, I didn't want to do it. But, what else can you do with a gun to the back of your head and the most beautiful woman that you had ever seen, naked, underneath you, with the guy holding the gun telling you to screw her or die?"  
  
"What was her past like? Anything that may have made it easier for her to choose to go catatonic?"  
  
"She's had a very rough life, Sandy. I've never seen anyone as abused as she was who managed to survive and turn his or her life around as much as she has. The scar on her face is from her mother, a "gift" on her birthday, just minutes before she was told to leave and never return. She was eight at the time. She considers herself so hideous that it isn't funny. She's afraid of people, and is so painfully shy that it's hard for her to do her job at times. I discovered when I did this to her that she had been raped somewhere in her childhood. I'm scared, Sandy. What if she never comes out of it? I can't stand the fact that I was the cause of it. I don't know what I'll do if she never comes back to us. And what if she's pregnant? In her condition, who knows how it'll affect her?" He groans in regret.  
  
Sandy leans over and takes his hand, squeezing it. "It'll be okay, Edwin, you'll see. Things will turn out for the best. It may be a while, but things will get better. You just have to stay optimistic."  
  
"I know, Sandy. I just hate to see the poor little girl like this. Usually, she's so animated herself. At least when she's with people that she's used to being around. She's the medical division's premier practical joker. She's usually up to something and never lets on. I remember the first time I fell for one of her pranks. She gave me a coffee cup with a frog glued to the inside of the bottom one day. I was drinking my usual coffee that morning and nearly freaked out when I found the frog. She was sitting at the other table in the lounge, reading a book and never even looked up. Kept a perfectly straight face until I yelled. That's when she burst out laughing and told Kenny and Tommy 'told you so'. And that's just before Kurt, until then our unofficial prank king, started an all out prank war that ended with him losing, and the rest of us crowning a new queen of prankdom."  
  
Sandy smiles. "You really did fall hard, bro. You're so far gone you don't even realize it."  
  
"I know. I was lost the moment I first saw her on the base, dodging the rest of the boys playing paintball and carrying a box of three-week-old fox kits. S'when I gave her her nickname. I love her, Sandy. That's the only thing I can say about it. I love her." 


	7. Telling on himself

They get to his dad's house and Edwin opens the back door of the car and scoops Kit into his arms. He carries her into the house and into his old room. He tenderly undresses her and puts her pajamas on her, laying her in the bed, undressing himself down to his boxer briefs and sliding in next to her, pulling her into his arms and tucking the blankets around them. Sandy turns the lights out, shuts the door and goes downstairs to get a cup of coffee and warn her parents what is going on when they get up.  
  
While she's drinking the coffee, she thinks back about what Edwin had told her about what had happened. A couple of hours later, she is so deep in thought that she doesn't notice that her dad is up until he sets his coffee cup on the table and says something.  
  
"What are you doing up so early, Sandy? And what were you out doing that you finally get home at two thirty in the morning?"  
  
Sandy sighs. "I was at the airport, picking someone up. The soonest commercial flight that they could get was the red eye from Philadelphia International. If you check Edwin's old room, you'll find it occupied. Please don't disturb them, though. They both need the rest."  
  
"Who, Sandy? Who's taken up residence in Edwin's old room?"  
  
Edwin sleepily wanders in, yawning. "I did. Well, a friend and I did," he answers, stretching. His father immediately jumps up and hugs him. He seats him at the table and plunks a cup of coffee in front of him.  
  
"Tell me about her."  
  
Edwin sips his coffee and looks at his dad. "Well, the first thing you should know is that right now she's deeply in shock, and catatonic, thanks to me, and what happened at that convention we were at last week."  
  
"Edwin Christopher Steen, what did you do to her? You better not have hurt her, son."  
  
He bows his head in shame. "I was forced to rape her, Dad. I...I didn't want to do it, because of her past. She's been hurt by far too many people, and I didn't want to add on to it, but I was forced to. It was a case of either me doing it, or one of those animals, and who knows what all diseases they might have had, and how much damage they might have done to her?"  
  
"Unless someone held a gun to your head, that's no excuse."  
  
"Um, Dad, that's exactly what happened. Remember hearing about that com- med convention that was taken hostage in that convention center a week or so ago?" He nods.  
  
"Lieutenant De Havilland and I were right in the center of it. Apparently the terrorist leader was also a closet pervert and decided to force us male medics to rape the girls we were with. Kit and the rest of the girls were drugged and beaten, and then, on top of that, we were forced to do that to them. I felt so sick that day, and I still feel that way. I feel so guilty for putting her in this situation. Every time I look at those bruises that I put on her, I get sick to my stomach about the situation. Kit's made a major turnaround in her life. She's the kind of girl that makes you want to hold her and keep her safe from the world. She's had nothing but pain since she was a tiny little girl. She practically raised herself on the streets of New Orleans, and is now one of the toughest medics in the unit. She's so elfin, yet she's one of the most physically powerful people that I've ever worked with. She can leg press about as much as Tommy can bench press, and he's a former Olympic champion in weightlifting."  
  
He gets up and puts his coffee cup in the sink, stretches again and yawns. "I'm going to go back to bed, just in case she wakes up. Call me when breakfast is ready."  
  
"No problem son. I understand now. It wasn't your fault, what happened. You tried to make it as bearable for her as you could. I'm proud of you, Edwin. You did what you thought was best under the circumstances."  
  
He goes up the stairs and slips back into the bed with Kit, cradling her petite body close to his protectively, pillowing her head on his shoulder and twining his legs with hers. This same event happens each morning for the next week or so. The only thing that differed was the conversation. Each day it got harder and harder for him to deal with the catatonia that she was in, and he prayed that she'd soon come out of it. 


	8. Good Morning!

THUD! "Grrrr. Dang that hurt. Oh well, I've had worse injuries," exclaims Kit as she sits up from where she had fallen off the bed onto the floor. She peeks over the side of the bed and looks at the cause of her quick backpedaling, which had resulted in her falling out of the bed.  
  
She had woken up with her head on his shoulder, her arm and hand lying across his bare chest, and her legs entangled with his. He was holding her like a lover, his arms wrapped possessively around her.  
  
"Oh my God. Why am I in bed with my boss? My immediate superior? And why is he holding me like I was his lover or something? I wonder if it has anything to do with those weird dreams that I've been having." She stares across the bed at him. "Awww. He looks so sweet and innocent when he sleeps, like a cute little boy. Not a worry in the world. I have never seen such thick, long lashes on a man before. Let's not even mention those oh so kissable looking lips. ( And that silky looking, just wanna run your hands through it, raven black hair? Yes, it is just as soft as it looks." Kit struggles to hold back a moan full of pure desire.  
  
Automatically assessing his condition on instinct, she notices that he was extremely pale and had dark circles underneath his eyes. She notices quickly that he had lost weight, and she knew for a fact that he didn't have any spare weight that he could afford to lose. "Sweet Jesus, what a body that man has! Look at that chiseled chest! And oh my goddess, those abs! How the heck does he hide them under that tight jumpsuit that he's always wearing?"  
  
She covers him back up and slips out of the door, looking for the bathroom. Halfway there, she hears a child begin to cry and her medic half of her brain kicks in, and she starts searching for the crying child to see if she can help.  
  
She finds herself in the kitchen with Lifeline's dad, Samuel, and a four- year-old toddler, whom she soon finds out, is his nephew, Toby. He was upset because he couldn't have the cereal that he wanted for breakfast.  
  
"Good morning! You must be Lieutenant De Havilland. Edwin's told us a lot about you. You must be hungry. Come over here, sit, and have some breakfast."  
  
"Call me Kit, Sir. I'm not really very hungry..." She trails off as she sits and Samuel places a plate overflowing with food in front of her.  
  
"Young lady, you're not big enough to argue with me. You're much too pale and thin for you to be healthy. Didn't your parents teach you how to take care of yourself?"  
  
"No, Sir. I didn't have parents that I can remember. I basically raised myself on the streets. My entire childhood is nothing but a blank space to me now and has been for as far back as I can remember."  
  
Samuel gasps in horror. What had this sweet, innocent looking little medic had to go through? How could any parents be so cruel, as to let their own flesh and blood raise themselves on the streets?  
  
A few minutes later, they heard a commotion on the stairs and Edwin comes sprinting out of the hall. "Dad, have you seen Kit? She was gone when I woke up," he asked, hurriedly, looking around.  
  
"Do I look like an octopus to you guys? Obviously, I can't be in two places at once, although most of the unit thinks that I can for some odd reason. I'm over here, Captain," she growls.  
  
Toby shoves out of Kit's lap and comes running up to his uncle, reaching to be picked up. Edwin scoops him into his arms and walks over to the counter, grabbing a plate and filling it for himself. He also grabs the small plastic plate off to the side and fixes Toby some breakfast. When he finishes, he sticks Toby in his usual chair and slides around the table to sit next to Kit.  
  
"Are you feeling better, Little Fox? At least you're up and about now."  
  
"Ask me again in about a half hour and I can probably tell you. Give me half a chance to wake up first."  
  
"I'm glad you're better from they way you've been lately. You really gave us a scare. I thought you were never coming back."  
  
"What do you mean the way I've been lately? There is nothing that's been wrong with me lately."  
  
"Don't get your panties in a twist. I'll explain later, Kit. Suffice it to say that things have been a lot different lately than usual."  
  
"I'm sorry, Captain. I always get bad-tempered after I go catatonic—Oh no, I didn't, did I?" she asks him fearfully.  
  
He nods and swallows a mouthful of food. "I'm afraid so."  
  
"What sent me into it this time?"  
  
"Like I said earlier, I'll explain later, when I know you can handle the shock of what happened. And besides, we got innocent ears around," he says, pointing at Toby.  
  
"Um, Captain, You might want to duck right about now," she tells him, struggling to keep a straight face and keeping an eye on all three males in the kitchen.  
  
"Why?" he asks, just seconds before he gets hit with a handful of scrambled eggs from Toby's direction. "Never mind," he deadpans as she bursts out laughing, along with Toby and Samuel. "Why didn't you warn me, Lieutenant?" "I did. Why do you think I told you that now would be a nice time to duck?" she tells him between gales of laughter.  
  
"You laugh? You think this is funny? I'll show you funny," he tells her, laughing at her, as he picks a grape from the bowl of fruit on the counter and arcs it perfectly to bounce off her forehead and drop through the neck of the shirt she was wearing.  
  
"Oh, now that just ain't kosher. I know he didn't go there." She reached into her shirt and retrieved the grape, acting like she was getting it ready to throw back at him, but then she popped it into her own mouth. "I'm a little too mature for these little games."  
  
He laughs and they finish their breakfast in silence, both of them going back for seconds and even thirds. When they get done, he tells her where to find her duffle in his room and how to get to the bathroom from there. 


	9. Snap, Crackle, Pop

While she was taking a shower, he asked his dad, "How'd you get her to eat like that? We've all been trying ever since she joined the unit, and we haven't had any success."  
  
"It's all in the threat, Edwin. I told her that if she didn't eat, that I'd tell you what she had said about something else that she had said that concerned you."  
  
"Hmmm, I never would have thought about that one." He scratches his chin, pondering his next move. "I'm going to take her for a walk down to the park. We probably won't be back until dinner. Don't worry about us. We'll get something for lunch."  
  
"Okay. All I'll say is be careful."  
  
"We will." He heads upstairs to talk to Kit and let her know what he had planned, letting her know what the weather was like so she could figure out what to wear.  
  
Kit comes out of the shower, wraps herself in a towel and walks down the hall to the bedroom to find Edwin sitting on the bed, waiting for her. He was wearing a pair of dark jeans and a dark midnight blue sweater over a light blue polo shirt, the combination bringing out the color of his eyes. The only thing that threw the outfit off was the combat boots that he was wearing.  
  
"It's pretty warm out there today, Kit. Just a pair of jeans and a sweater should be enough to keep you warm," he tells her as she takes some clothing out of her duffle and tosses it on the bed. She then turns and looks at him.  
  
"What?" he asks.  
  
"I ain't dropping this towel until I'm alone in this room. Scram!"  
  
"I've seen your naked body before, De Havilland, and I've had my hands on it. Not to mention other parts of me in, on, and around it. I'm not leaving this room unless you're with me."  
  
"I think not," she replied. The pair glared at each other, neither one backing down until Lifeline looked away.  
  
He thinks hard for a moment. "I've got a compromise, Lieutenant. I promise that I'll turn my back and I won't peek, but I'm not leaving this room unless you're with me. That's an order, by the way. I'm pulling rank on you."  
  
She considers his offer. "Alright. You promise that you won't even try to peek?"  
  
"I promise."  
  
"Okay. I guess I can live with that."  
  
He turns his back and she walks over to the darkest corner of the room, away from him. He hears the sound of the towel hitting the floor and then has to bite his lip to keep from moaning in desire at the sounds of Kit pulling on her clothes. He closes his eyes, clenches his hands into fists and prays for restraint and strength to keep from ripping what she had on already off of her and deliberately attacking her as he hears the sound of her snapping her bra on and a couple of minutes later she taps him on the shoulder.  
  
"I need a little help. Can you please help me pop my back?"  
  
He turns, and almost trips over her; she's so close to him. She's wearing a pair of tailored jeans and an oatmeal colored turtleneck shirt underneath a dark green sweater combination that looked stunning on her, bringing out the red highlights in her dark auburn hair and deepening the silver-green of her eyes.  
  
"Turn around," he tells her, his voice husky with desire. She turns and crosses her arms over her chest. He moves behind her and wraps his arms around her arms. He then leans back, picking her up off of the floor and both of them hear a series of pops and snaps. He puts her down and she turns to him again.  
  
"Now I need you to spot me for a moment." He nods and she moves over to a spot by the wall. She then goes into a backbend, walking herself down the wall. She hears a loud crack and attempts to stand back up, but she can't move.  
  
"Okay, this is why I needed the spot. I need help getting back up."  
  
He steps over in front of her and reaches down, putting his hands on her hips and pulling her up. When he has her on her feet, her body is so close to his that they're almost touching, and his hands are around her waist. He tenderly reaches up and brushes some of her hair out of her face. Desire and lust are written all over his face.  
  
"Thank you. Now do you see why I say I'm like a bowl of cereal in the mornings?" she jokes, trying to break the serious mood before anything got started between them.  
  
"What cereal?"  
  
"Rice Krispies. You know, snap, crackle, pop."  
  
"Oh," he says, laughing, "I understand."  
  
Both of them sit on the edge of the bed and she pulls on her boots- a handmade, custom, low cut version of his combat boots. She zips, laces, and ties them up and stands, shifting to the most comfortable position in them. She then grabs her hairbrush and brushes her hair, pulling it back from her face and braiding it quickly. 


	10. Revelations

They hit the street, walking towards a small park about six blocks from where Lifeline had grown up. Neither one of them says anything, but you could see the tension crackling between the pair. They both make a special effort not to touch the other one.  
  
They find an unoccupied picnic table away from prying eyes. He sits down across from her, not looking her way.  
  
"I need to explain what the heck is going on between us, little fox. And I need to discuss with you where we're going from here."  
  
She looks at him and sees how hard he is shaking. She reaches out and takes his hands, helping to still their trembling. She'd never seen him this nervous before. He'd always been the calmest one out of the entire medical group no matter what happened.  
  
This was starting to make her nervous. Actually, she was past nervous, it was starting to creep her out.  
  
"While we were at that convention in Atlantic City, the medical center where it was being held was taken hostage by a group of terrorists. How much of it do you remember?" he asks.  
  
"Up to where I was coming out of the bathroom stall after they'd separated us and something hit me across the back of the head, twice. When I still didn't go down, they injected some kind of sedative, I guess it was, into my arm." She starts rubbing her arm where it had happened. "Freaking idiot hit the vein, and that's the last I remember. Well, until the dreams, that is."  
  
"What dreams?"  
  
"After that, I started having these weird dreams about you doing things to me. Things I knew that you wouldn't dare to do." She blushes in embarrassment as she recalls what happened in those dreams.  
  
He squeezes her hand. "In those dreams, was I... forcing you to have sex with me?" he asks, quietly.  
  
She reddens even more, closes her eyes and nods, ashamed of remembering what went on in those dreams. He sighs heavily, and takes a deep breath.  
  
"It wasn't a dream, sweetheart. God knows that I didn't want to do it, but it was a case of them or me, and I didn't want you to be hurt as much as you had been in your past. They might have had who knows what kinds of diseases, and they all had the cold-blooded killer look about them. They had a gun to my head, Kit. I didn't want to do it. They forced me to do it. I tried to make it as painless and as pleasurable as possible for you as I could."  
  
"Somewhere in the back of my mind, Captain, I knew that. After the drug wore off and I came awake enough to know what was actually going on, I went into shock, didn't I?"  
  
He nods. "And there's something else, something very important that I have to tell you. This is why I have to know where we're heading in our relationship."  
  
He pauses and she looks at him. He is staring at an ant pile on the ground near the table. "What is it? What's wrong?"  
  
"Kit, when I climaxed, I was planning on pulling out and spilling myself on the floor or the cot, but they wouldn't let me. Whenever I tried to pull out, the leader put his boot on the small of my back and forced me to stay inside you. He forced me to spill my seed inside of you. More than once. There's a good chance that you're pregnant with my child now."  
  
She sits there, stunned, and audibly swallows.  
  
"I know that you can never forgive me for this, and I am so sorry, little fox. I'll never regret anything as much as I do this. I figured that when we got back to the base, that you would ask for a transfer to another unit, and I can't blame you for that. I know that you probably don't want anything to do with me, now, after what I did. All I ask is that if you do ask for a transfer, that you keep in touch. The only thing I can say is that it just wouldn't be as lively there without you."  
  
"Well, as you can see," she spoke softly, "I was in no condition to do much of anything when we got back to the base. And believe it or not, Lifeline, I do forgive you. It wasn't your fault. You didn't do it because you wanted to, but you did it in order to make it easier for me. You may have had to rape me, but it was done under duress. I don't blame you, Captain. I blame them. In fact, I was kinda glad it was you, and I still am. It could have been much, much worse. Thank you."  
  
He looked up sharply at her as she forgave him and then thanked him for what he had done. He didn't think she would be able to. She saw the relief in his eyes as she forgave him and she knew that her gut instinct to trust this man was once again right.  
  
"I feel so bad about it. I mean, the whole time you were crying and pleading with me not to do what I was doing. It broke my heart to cause you so much pain, and to know that I was the one causing all of it. I knew when I held you up at the beginning, that first time I tasted you, that you had been raped somewhere in your past, and I knew that it was going to cause you to go into shock again. I just didn't realize how far until I saw how deeply you pulled into yourself."  
  
"Well, at least I'll be where you can keep an eye on me and I can keep one on you."  
  
He chuckles. "That' s true. There's also something else very important that I have to tell you." He sobers quickly and so does she. "If you are carrying my child, the odds are high that there's more than one. I'm half of a pair of twins. I have an identical twin brother, Everett. And according to your birth records, you're what they call a 'missing twin'. Your twin sister was stillborn."  
  
She sits there in silence for a moment, digesting this important information. He squeezes her hand.  
  
"Tessa, Kit, if you are pregnant, we will definitely get married, no doubt about it. I'm not going to let any child of mine be born a bastard."  
  
She turns her head and looks off into the distance. "Um, Sir, I'm not certain that that would be the best option. I need to think about it. I'm not sure that I could deal with marrying a guy just because I was pregnant with his child. My mother made that mistake, and my father wound up leaving her not long after I was born because I wasn't what he wanted when I was born. I wasn't a boy. And because of that, she hated me with a passion. To her, I was worth nothing more than the dust beneath her feet. To this day, I still feel like I have to work to be accepted by anyone. I don't want to bring a child into that type of situation. I know how painful that it really is. I know how hard it is to deal with the teasing, taunting, pointing and laughter."  
  
A look of surprise and sudden realization comes into his eyes. "That explains a lot of things. Why you shied away from Tommy and I when you first got there, why it took a while for you to get used to all of us. It explains why you never ask for help. You've never had anyone that you could depend on, have you?"  
  
"No, Sir, I haven't. There's more to the story. The reason I am so solitary is not because I think my scar sickens people. It's because I'm terrified of them. Growing up, I was physically, mentally, emotionally, and worst of all, sexually abused by people that I was supposed to have been able to trust. My own mother pimped me out like I was some kind of whore when I was only five or six, and then she sold me to a guy down the street as a sex slave when I was seven. I ran away quickly after that. That's why I like to be alone. That's why it takes so long for me to trust someone. That's the reason I go ballistic if you guys sneak up on me."  
  
He curses under his breath, comes around the table, sits next to her, and pulls her close to him, hugging her hard, trying to give her a little of the comfort and peace that she had never had growing up. Some wall inside of her cracks and disintegrates, and she loses control of herself. He feels her begin to shudder as she starts crying on his shoulder. He holds her closer to him and rocks her like the small child she might have once been as she finally releases all the pain and sorrow that she'd been hiding all her life.  
  
"I'm so sorry," she says as she leans back away from him, wiping her eyes with the sleeves of her sweater. "I didn't mean to start blubbering like a baby on you."  
  
"It's alright. I don't mind. If it made you feel a little better, then I'm happy to let you do it. And the next time you call me Sir off base, I'm really going to have to get back at you. Off base we have the same rank. Neither one of us outranks the other. My first name is Edwin. Use it." He checks his watch, frowning as he notices the time. "Are you hungry? We can go get some lunch if you want."  
  
She shakes her head. "No, I'm not hungry. In fact, just the thought of food turns my stomach."  
  
"I'm not that hungry either. Come here." He takes her hand, gets up and moves over to the shade of a group of trees. He sits down between the roots of one and leans back against it, tugging on her hand, drawing her down into his lap, and holding her close to him. For a little while, they just sit there, enjoying the sun and warmth of a beautiful day.  
  
"Captain, why are you doing this?"  
  
"Doing what, little fox?"  
  
"Why are you being so nice to me? I mean, you're treating me like I matter, like what I think or feel matters. Nobody's ever done that."  
  
"That's part of the problem, Kit. You don't have any faith that anybody thinks you matter. Most people around you don't know what a treasure they have in their midst. A big part of the problem is that you're so small and quiet, everybody forgets that you're there. You need to speak up when you have something to say. Even if nobody else listens, I will. I can't promise to do anything about it, but I will at least promise to listen."  
  
He bends his head, his ice blue eyes locking gazes with her silver-green ones, and kisses her, softly at first and as she responds, deepening it, slowly. When they finally surface for air minutes later, he is breathing heavily, and her breathing is just as shallow as his is deep.  
  
"You know, Kit, I've had a crush on you since I first saw you on the base, carrying that box of baby foxes and dodging the boys playing paintball. That's when I started calling you Kit, and I gave you your codename of Vixen. For more than one reason. One, was because of the fact that you were hand raising those fox kits, and the second was because, pardon the pun, I thought you were quite foxy, myself."  
  
She groans. "That one really sucked, Captain. I didn't see you that first day, but I do remember having a crush on you when you ran past me to the injured when that bomb had gone off on the base a few days later. We had a saboteur, and I had seen the person drop the package and run, so that was my first priority. After I had tackled him and knocked him senseless and let Chuckles have him, I went back to help with the wounded and the casualties. When you reached around my waist, grabbed me and pulled me away from one of the bodies, I knew then that I had a crush on you. Especially when you twisted behind me to make sure you landed underneath me. Later, after you said that you didn't mind the injury too much because it was such a beautiful woman that had done it, if looks could kill, you'd have been six foot under in something less than four-tenths of a second. I gave you my patented glare of doom, and it didn't even faze you. Remind me to do something about that one of these days."  
  
After their shared confessions, they both felt a lot lighter, as if some of the weight of the world on their shoulders had disappeared. They walked back to his parents' house hand in hand, and laughing and joking like they were old friends. 


	11. Are you or are you not?

His sister had just started making dinner just before they walked in and as soon as Kit got a good sniff of the odors from the kitchen, her stomach started lurching, and she went ahead and stepped out to sit for a little while on the porch.  
  
"We'll be back in in a little while, Sandy," Edwin tells her, as he ducks back after Kit.  
  
They sit shoulder to shoulder on the porch steps in companionable silence for a little while and then he suggests that they walk down to the corner drugstore for a few minutes. She agrees, knowing that there are a few things that she needs to pick up while they're there.  
  
She gets the things she needs and meets him to look at the pregnancy tests. They discuss which one they should get, and finally decide on one. They buy the items and head back to the house, after Edwin gets buttonholed about what he's been up to since the last time he was here. (The owners had known him since he was a little boy.) He introduced Kit and gave them a watered down version of what had happened the last few years while he was away.  
  
When they finally get back to the house, Kit decides to forego dinner and goes straight upstairs to take a bath. While she is getting ready and running the water in the tub, she takes the pregnancy test out and uses it.  
  
It comes out positive. She turns the water off and sits there, thinking for over an hour. Edwin breaks in after knocking on the door and not receiving an answer. She shows him the test. He reads it, snarls, and whirls around, striding out of the room. Kit begins to cry hard at the thoughts that are running around her head, thanks to his reaction.  
  
Sandy comes in to find out what had just happened. Edwin had nearly knocked her over when he came barreling through the kitchen, heading for the garage. Kit shows her the test and then tells her about Edwin's reaction.  
  
"He...he looked so mad. I was afraid to say anything, because the last time I did say something in the same type of situation, I got seriously injured. I don't care about me, but what about the baby? I can handle it if he rejects me, but what if he rejects the baby? It took two people to create this child, not just one of us. I don't really want to bring a child into the same type of situation that I grew up with. It's just too painful for me to consider. It brings up things that are better left hidden and buried."  
  
Sandy realizes what Kit is talking about and reaches out, pulling Kit to her in a hug. "Even if Edwin won't have anything to do with the baby, we'll help you with the child. We're behind you one hundred percent, whatever you decide to do. I'm going to have niece or nephew. I can't wait! It's so exciting. At least in a way, it is."  
  
"Thank you," Kit whispers. She finishes drying off and changes into her pajamas and crawls into the bed, exhausted. 


	12. Wake up Sleeping Beauty!

The next morning she gets up and plays with Toby, and gets him breakfast. There is no sign of Edwin anywhere. His parents were worried. This was highly unlike him, to be running off by himself to deal with something.  
  
"Oh, well. He'll just have to get over his little snit. He's not the one who has to deal with all the problems and possible complications of pregnancy. He's not the one that's going to have to deal with the morning sickness, and he won't have to buy new clothes every couple of weeks because he's outgrown his. And for damn sure, he's not the one who's going to have to do all the work when it's time for the baby to be born. He's not going to have to deal with the pain of labor. I will. Screw it, I'm tired. I'm going to take a nap," she thought as she ate a light lunch.  
  
That afternoon, Kit lets his parents know that she's going to go take a nap, and goes upstairs, curling up on the bed in a ball, her back to the door. Just before she drops off into oblivion, she hears Edwin out in the hallway.  
  
A couple of hours pass, and Kit feels something soft tickling her cheek. She swats at it a couple of times and hears soft laughter. One of her eyes pops open, looking to see what the heck was going on, thinking that it was Toby wanting her to get up and play with him. Instead, she spots Edwin kneeling by the side of the bed, softly stroking her cheek with a single perfect red rose. She had no idea how he had found out about one of her deepest hidden childhood dreams, for someone to wake her like that one day.  
  
"Wake up, Sleeping Beauty." He smiles and she returns it, suddenly launching herself out of the bed and making a beeline for the bathroom. He matches her step for step and he holds her hair out of the way while she vomits what was left of her breakfast and lunch out of her stomach and supported her upper body as she lost strength. When she got finished and rinsed her mouth out with a cup of water that he had gotten her, he scooped her into his arms and carried her back to the bed.  
  
"I'm sorry I ran out on you like that last night, little fox," he softly told her as he laid her on the bed and stretched out next to her. "The only excuse I can offer is that I wasn't thinking straight. It's not that I don't want children; it's just that I wanted to wait a little before I had them. I wanted time to convince their mother that she was beautiful and that I was deeply in love with her. I really wanted my child to be conceived in love and not forced on you like what has happened." Her eyes filled with tears as he ran his hand over her still flat abdomen, silently laying claim to her and the child growing within her. "I wanted you to know before we started that you wouldn't have to worry about raising this child alone, because I will take care of the both of you. You never had anyone to take care of you, and you turned out wonderfully, but it took two of us to create this baby, and I take care of my responsibilities. I wanted to make sure that you knew that you wouldn't have to worry about bringing a child into this world and into the same situation that you grew up in."  
  
"S'okay. That's what I figured was what happened. After I had some time to think about it, I realized what had happened. If it makes any sense at all, it shocked the snot out of me too. Although, I should have known when I didn't get my period like I usually do. I'm usually regular as clockwork. Stress or not." 


	13. Don't mess with a pregnant woman!

They stayed in Seattle for another week or so, both of them trying to get used to being around each other, and getting used to the fact that they were going to be parents, together, and then went back to the base. Hawk was shocked but delighted when he found out about the pregnancy, and the rest of the girls were also stunned, but pleased, and immediately began to plan a baby shower for Kit.  
  
Even the guys got into the act, each of them treating her like a china doll, driving her so crazy she just about single-handedly destroying the gym and the dojo when she had finally had enough and they pushed her that last little bit.  
  
Edwin made sure that he kept a close eye on her. It drove her up the wall, and she told him to take a hike more than once because she just didn't want to see him for a little while because she'd seen him more than enough. It was getting close to the obsession stage.  
  
Every day he would do something so romantic and thoughtful that would make Kit think she was the only girl in the world for him.  
  
As the weeks pass, Kit falls deeper in love with Edwin than she had ever thought possible. She assumed that the reason he was doing all these things was because of the baby. She never stopped to think that he might be doing them because he cared for her. 


	14. Double Trouble

"Don't forget that we have that doctor's appointment today, Kit," he reminded her, earlier in the morning, letting her know that he'd come get her when it was time to go.  
  
"I won't. I'm actually looking forward to it. Can you believe that it's almost three months now?"  
  
"Three months? Already?" he asks, coming up behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist, and softly laying his hands on the gentle swell of her belly. "If I'm not mistaken, they should be doing a sonogram this time. I can't wait to find out what the baby looks like. I hope that it looks like you, little fox."  
  
That afternoon, he comes into the lab where she was working, breaking down an explosive used in a sabotage attempt. "It's time to go, babe," he tells her, grabbing her sweatshirt off of a hook by the door and holding it for her as she shrugged it on, after she had found a stopping point in her research.  
  
He leads her out to his truck, tenderly helping her into the passenger seat and hustling around to the other side. They arrive at the doctor's office with ten minutes to spare, with her signing them in and then sitting in one of the unoccupied seats around the room.  
  
The nurse comes in to call them, and Edwin helps Kit out of the chair and keeps his hand on the small of her back, guiding her and silently letting her know that he was there for the long haul, no matter what happened. She led them into one of the rooms and did the usual pre-doctor checklist.  
  
Kit shifts in her seat. "I gotta go to the bathroom...bad."  
  
"Well, actually, looking at the notes that Dr. Sheridan wrote, it looks like she wanted to do a sonogram today, so it's best that you have a full bladder. It'll make it easier to find the baby."  
  
"Oh. Cool," exclaimed Edwin. "You learn something new every day."  
  
The nurse leaves the room and shortly thereafter, Doctor Sheridan comes in. She measures the swollen mound of her belly and feels the baby on each side.  
  
"I have a feeling that you may be carrying more than one, unless this baby is so utterly quicksilver. On both sides of your belly, I feel the baby's back. Okay, I need for you to lie back, pull your shirt up and tuck it under your bra, and to pull your pants down below your belly and tuck this towel around them."  
  
She gets up and darkens the lights, pulling the ultrasound machine over. Edwin shifts position to stand on Kit's other side. Sheridan squeezes some gel on Kit's abdomen and begins the ultrasound.  
  
"Well, congratulations. It's twins!"  
  
"Why am I not surprised?" Kit asked, sarcastically.  
  
"I wonder, could it be because both parents were twins," Edwin answered in the same tone of voice.  
  
"Do you want to know the sexes?"  
  
"No!" both Edwin and Kit emphasize in unison.  
  
"It would ruin the surprise," Kit complained.  
  
"I've got an idea. Let's call my parents tonight before we leave for the concert."  
  
"Works for me." Kit's head comes up sharply. "What concert?"  
  
"Oh. You haven't opened the package yet. Wait until we get back to the base."  
  
"Okay."  
  
That morning, he'd sent her a package and told her to wait until she got off duty that afternoon to open it. She was exhausted when she got back, but as soon as she saw the package lying on her bed, she opened it. Inside were a beautiful, velvet and satin, knee length, dark green dress, and tickets to a concert, with a note that said to be ready by eight o'clock or they'd miss the show.  
  
He didn't want to miss the concert because he had a very special surprise planned for Kit. He wasn't going to let on to her just how nervous he really was that day. All day he just couldn't keep his mind on what he was supposed to be doing. At least nothing really big had happened. No injuries other than the occasional cut and/or scrape, and two sprained ankles.  
  
He caught himself more than once watching her gracefulness as she took care of the patients that walked in. None of the guys complained when they found out she was going to be the one taking care of them. In fact, on more than one occasion, they'd asked for her, even though she didn't believe it when he and Stretcher, Bree or Doc had told her about it.  
  
Edwin whistled as he climbed the stairs up to his quarters. Tonight was the night. The night he was going to get the answer to the most important question that he had ever asked anyone in his life. He reached in his pocket to get his keys and came into contact with the little black velvet box that contained the ring. He smiled. He could almost predict what Kit was going to say.  
  
"Edwin, I know that you feel obligated to marry me just because of the babies. I can't handle that. I need to know that I'm the reason you're proposing. I'll marry for love, and nothing less. I'm not going to make the same mistake that my parents made, the one that sent me to hell because they goofed up." He knew what his argument was going to be, how he could get around that one-track mindset of hers.  
  
Kit is in the middle of her bath when the phone rings. She grabs the handset and answers it. Her face grows pale as she listens.  
  
"Here? On...on the base? But- but why? Okay. First things first, though, I have a call to make."  
  
She tries to call Edwin, but no one answers his phone. She shrugs and gets dressed; deciding to meet him after this encounter is over.  
  
She walks over to the command center, greenshirts whistling at her until they realize who it is.  
  
As soon as she gets into the room where her family had camped out, they start in on her. They accuse her of everything from breaking up her parents' marriage all the way to murder. Kit takes all this in stride. She refuses to get physically violent, knowing that Grand Slam, Dusty, Mainframe, Flint, Duke, Sci-Fi, Lowlight and Hawk are watching the monitors to keep a close eye on her, to help out if she needs them. If any physical violence broke out, they'd be in the room faster than a duck on a junebug. She had also left a message on Lifeline's answering machine about where and why she'd be.  
  
About five minutes after the argument started, the door bursts open and Lifeline comes barreling through, going straight to the side of his girlfriend- the mother to be of his twin children. He reaches around her and pulls her close to his side, fire flashing in his eyes as he listens to the accusations.  
  
"Why are you doing this? Why are you coming after her after all this time? You never wanted anything to do with her before. Why now? She hasn't done anything to you."  
  
"She exists! That's the problem. If we want to be happy, then she has to die."  
  
"No one is going to die. There has to be another solution."  
  
"The only solution is that she has to die. As long as she is alive, there will always be someone who can remember her existence. I'm going to take her out of the equation of our family so that we can live happily," said her mother.  
  
Lifeline steps in front of Vixen. "You'd have to go through me first."  
  
The darker of the two young men in the room shrugs and swings at him. Lifeline blocks the punch and counters with one of his own, connecting. Kit backpedals to give him room to maneuver, and comes hard up against the wall.  
  
The woman in the room takes this opportunity to get close to her and sinks a punch into her abdomen. Kit doubles over in agony as the door slams open and Mainframe, Flint, Grand Slam and Sci-Fi fly through, fists flying. The woman keeps punching and kicking her while she's down. Kit curls up in as small a ball as she can get to protect the twins.  
  
Lifeline sets up and executes a perfect roundhouse kick, knocking the young man out, while the rest of the guys take the remaining family into custody. He turns and finds Kit lying on the floor, clutching her stomach. He immediately drops to his knees to check her out.  
  
When he deems it okay to move her, he slips his arms around her, one behind her back and one behind her knees, and picks her up, holding her close to his chest, and carries her to the infirmary where the news of what had happened had already spread. The rest of the guys make a ring around them, guarding both of them. Both Doc and Stretcher take control and run the necessary tests, letting Lifeline calm down and be with his girlfriend. 


	15. A very unusual wedding

When the couple is finally left alone, Edwin decides to go ahead and ask her. Their plans are shot to heck already, so he might as well nut up and do it.  
  
"Kit, there's something I need to ask you. I wanted to do it at the concert, but since our plans are shot to pieces, I'm going to ask you here and now. I wanted so much to wait and make sure you knew that I loved you. I have since I first saw you. I knew that I wanted children, with you as their mother and I wanted you to know that I wanted you for who you were and not who everybody thought you should be. I wanted you to know that you wouldn't have to raise our children alone, and that the reason I was asking you this is because I love you. And I need to know." He gets down on one knee next to the hospital bed and reaches in his pocket, pulling out the ring. "Kit, my little fox, Will you marry me?"  
  
She gasps and begins to cry, nodding. "Yes. Yes, Edwin. I will."  
  
He bounds up from the floor and sits on the bed with her, sliding the ring onto her finger. "I want to get married as soon as possible, Kit. Do you mind not having a large wedding?"  
  
"No, Edwin, I don't mind. A simple civil ceremony will do for me."  
  
"You do realize that I love you, right?"  
  
"Yes, Edwin. I kinda figured that out on my own. I'm not as think as some people dense I be."  
  
"How would you feel if I went by my quarters and got the paperwork and then went to get Hawk to perform the ceremony immediately?"  
  
"Like one of those little toads that Mainframe keeps as pets."  
  
He looks at her quizzically.  
  
"You know...horny toads?" she asks, blushing.  
  
"Oh. I actually get it! That's a good one, baby," he tells her. "I'll be back in about an hour, tops. I'll stop by and get Courtney for you and tell her to come talk to you ASAP."  
  
"Thanks, honey."  
  
"It's most definitely my pleasure," he says, brushing his lips softly against hers in a light kiss before he leaves the room.  
  
Ten minutes later, Courtney pops her head in the door with Ralph and Allison. "Lifeline said that you needed to see me?" she asked.  
  
"Yeah. How would you like to witness a wedding?"  
  
"So he proposed?" asked Ralph. Kit nods.  
  
"About fifteen minutes ago. He just went to his quarters to get the paperwork and then said he was going to go get Hawk to do the ceremony for us."  
  
"When?" asked Allison.  
  
"Immediately, he said. He must have gone ahead and gotten the paperwork already, making sure that he had it. He must have been really sure of himself."  
  
"Mind if we stay?" Ralph queried.  
  
"Fine with me."  
  
Doc, Bree, Psyche-Out and Stretcher pop into the room.  
  
"We heard that there was about to be a wedding, and we didn't want to miss out," Kenny explained. Everybody laughed.  
  
Lifeline returns with Hawk, Flint, Scarlett and Duke. He crosses the room and, ignoring everyone else, bends down and tenderly kisses Kit. "Are you ready?"  
  
"As ready as I can be, considering."  
  
Hawk looks at Edwin. "It's your show, son. Go ahead. Let the wedding begin."  
  
Edwin sits on the edge of the hospital bed and takes Kit's hand.  
  
"Know that I mean these words when I say them, my young co-medic. When you are sad, I will dry your tears. When you are scared, I will comfort your fears. When you are worried, I will give you hope. When you are confused, I will help you cope. And when you are lost, and can't see the light, I will be your beacon, shining ever so bright. This is my oath; I pledge to the end. Why, you may ask? Because you are my lover and friend."  
  
Kit's eyes fill with unshed tears. "Edwin, since we have been together, you have provided me with strength, security, confidence, honesty, love & plenty of much needed guidance. Where there has been cold, you have brought warmth; where my life was dark, you have brought light. In my darkest trouble, in my coldest silence; I looked for you and you were there. You are truly my knight in shining armor. You may not realize it but you have helped me and saved me in so many ways and I love you for that. I am honored that you will have me as your wife and I am proud to have you as my husband. I believe that we were meant to be from the start & I will always love you with all my heart."  
  
Stretcher hands a small box to Edwin, who pops it open and pulls out a pair of rings. He hands the larger one to Kit and slides the smaller one onto her left hand.  
  
"Tristan, with free and unconstrained soul, I give you all I am and all I am to become. Take this ring, and with it my promise of faith, patience, and love, for the rest of my life."  
  
Kit takes the ring that Edwin handed her and slides it onto his left hand. "Edwin, I give you this ring as a symbol of our vows, and with all that I am, and all that I have, I honor you. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, With this ring, I thee wed."  
  
They both look up at Hawk who is leaning up against the wall and beaming. "In as much as you have each pledged to the other your lifelong commitment, love and devotion, I now pronounce you husband and wife, in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Those whom God has joined together let no one put asunder. Edwin, You may kiss your bride!"  
  
Lifeline leans over and passionately kisses Kit. The room erupts in cheers. Doc leans over and turns on the radio. "Take My Breath Away" begins to play.  
  
"I knew that there was a reason that I bought this bottle of sparkling cider," stated Bree, sheepishly. Doc runs out of the room and returns moments later with a handful of cups, passing them out as Bree fills them.  
  
Stretcher raises his glass as he toasts the couple. "Edwin, take Tristan's hand and place your hand over hers. Now, remember this moment and cherish it... because this will be the last time you'll ever have the upper hand!" There was no one in the room who wasn't doubled over laughing.  
  
"Just wait, Tommy. Payback's coming, and not too long off either, judging from what I've been seeing lately," Kit wheezes between laughs.  
  
Edwin hugs her hard. 


End file.
